John’s Notes: Parish Newsletter editorials
November 2019
As autumn takes hold the year cycles on towards winter. We defy the dark evenings by lighting bonfires, we deny the cold by burning fuel indoors. And the life of the church cycles on also, into a time of remembering – lost loved ones at All Souls, the saints of the ages at All Saints, and with the war-weary world, those lost in conflicts at Remembrance. May God hold us, in our remembering.
The life of the church cycles on in other ways. Last month the people of Austwick were reminded of the financial costs of running our churches and invited to reconsider our giving. It’s an invitation extended to all for whom the church remains important in these times of great change. Most of us are caught in another cycle – sometimes called The Cash Triangle – a process leading from Education to Mortgage to Pension which then, through the generations, cycles around again. The church exists in this cycle, and is open-eyed about the ways it affects us; but the church also invites us into another cycle of life – in which a search for the Spiritual / Sacred / Mystical leads on into a place of Healing and Wholeness, and deeper on into a place of Acceptance and Love in community – which then, through the generations, cycles around again.
In Leeds Diocese we are committed to a programme called Leading Your Church into Growth. We do so open-eyed to the reality of diminishing attendence, deteriorating finances and a decreasing, increasingly stretched paid workforce, a ‘spiral of decline which we may have learned to manage but not to reverse’ (Bob Jackson). We can be a fatally self-apologetic body: ’faintly embarrassed by the suggestion that there might be something more to life, it seems the Church of England thinks God is the ultimate ‘good chap’.’ (Jeremy Paxman). But there is confidence that the C of E continues to be an amazing network of thousands of local churches, expressing and supporting community – let’s be bold and say sharing the love of God – practically and in traditional and new ways of worship, with the generations.
Yes, it can feel like winter is approaching – but we live in faith that after winter comes spring, as we unapologetically commit to defying the darkness, and take steps to keep the lights shining.
